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jpinney2's review against another edition
3.0
Benford’s writing style can be difficult to read at times, and I found myself simply skimming over the dense layered blocks of “ship speak.” The “character development” seems to be wholly irrelevant to the story and honestly, every character kind of sucks - I don’t think a single one of them is likable. The time spent waxing on the workings of three way relationships - pointless, droll, added in to create some “drama” in an already compelling story - was a failed attempt to add depth to the characters.
Nevertheless, the story is incredibly intriguing, the science is kick ass and Benford has an incredibly compelling take on what other forms of life could be out there. A prime example of sturgeons law, where 90% of it is crap, but it was still worth the read for the remaining 10%, if you are able to wade through the faux complex posturing on the nature of Nigel’s relationships.
Nevertheless, the story is incredibly intriguing, the science is kick ass and Benford has an incredibly compelling take on what other forms of life could be out there. A prime example of sturgeons law, where 90% of it is crap, but it was still worth the read for the remaining 10%, if you are able to wade through the faux complex posturing on the nature of Nigel’s relationships.
tuftymctavish's review against another edition
3.0
Some of this is a tough read, especially the collective conversation pieces aboard Lancer. It also feels a bit disjointed with kinda parallel threads, and an oddly runway ending that, frankly, lost me for a bit in the run-up to the final scene which seemed to end far, far too quickly. Just as it got interesting again after a confusing sequence it's turn, turn, turn, and over, without detail or build-up.
tome15's review against another edition
5.0
Benford, Gregory. Across the Sea of Suns. 1984. Galactic Center No. 2. Aspect, 2004.
In Across the Sea of Suns, the second novel of the Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series, we have a two-ring circus, a near-lightspeed interstellar exploration mission and an alien invasion in Earth’s oceans. The space mission provides Benford’s answer to Fermi’s paradox that the universe should be teaming with intelligent life, yet alien civilizations are hard to find. It turns out that the oldest civilizations are machines that stomp on emerging space-faring cultures as soon as they detect radio signals. Meanwhile Earth’s oceans have been seeded with genetically modified creatures designed to destroy the biome. Under pressure human governments go to war with one another. The oceanic theater gives Benford the opportunity to tell a very tense castaway survival story. This is hard science fiction that rivals the work of Arthur C. Clarke and arguably has better character development.
In Across the Sea of Suns, the second novel of the Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series, we have a two-ring circus, a near-lightspeed interstellar exploration mission and an alien invasion in Earth’s oceans. The space mission provides Benford’s answer to Fermi’s paradox that the universe should be teaming with intelligent life, yet alien civilizations are hard to find. It turns out that the oldest civilizations are machines that stomp on emerging space-faring cultures as soon as they detect radio signals. Meanwhile Earth’s oceans have been seeded with genetically modified creatures designed to destroy the biome. Under pressure human governments go to war with one another. The oceanic theater gives Benford the opportunity to tell a very tense castaway survival story. This is hard science fiction that rivals the work of Arthur C. Clarke and arguably has better character development.
sjstuart's review against another edition
4.0
I started this book without realizing it was a sequel to [b:In the Ocean of Night|453960|In the Ocean of Night (Galactic Center, #1)|Gregory Benford|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174917601s/453960.jpg|2226612] (which seems to be a pretty common problem; the edition I read didn't try very hard to label it as the second in a series). I'm sure I didn't fully understand all of the references to off-stage characters from the previous book, and it took me a while to assemble the back story of how the main character, Nigel, had discovered an alien artifact and had his mind altered as a result. There was certainly no lengthy exposition about preceding events. But in general I like books that toss me into the middle of things and challenge me to keep up, so I didn't feel like I was missing much.
Not too many of the characters in this book are likable, including the introspective, grumpy old man protagonist, and it's a fairly slow-paced story, focusing more on shipboard politics and interstellar voyages than on the sporadic action scenes. But it kept my interest, nonetheless. There many interesting speculations about different forms of life, from organic to mechanical and a few hybrid stages in between, and the science is very sound (as always for a [a:Gregory Benford|22645|Gregory Benford|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1224059011p2/22645.jpg] novel).
Part of what kept me intrigued and entertained was the clear literary aspirations of the novel, with an experimental prose style and multiple themes and levels of metaphor. These make it stand out from a more run-of-the-mill space adventure.
Ship or suit radio communications comprise a significant portion of the book; these are written in a very fragmented and informal style, with little punctuation or indication of who is speaking, but plenty of jargon, slang, regional accents and verbal filler like umm, yeah, right. Apparently sometime in the next century, astronauts lose their formal "This is Houston. Over." radio habits and revert to talking over each other on a party line. This takes some effort to read, but is great at setting a mood, and illustrating the loss of information over radio compared to one-on-one dialogue with visual contact.
There are a number of themes and parallels running through the book. I suspect these may strike some as heavy-handed, since subtle metaphors typically sail right over my head. But for the most part they are left for the reader to discover, rather than being explicitly pointed out, and they definitely contributed to my enjoyment of the book. The most thought-provoking example for me was the theme of overzealous response of self-repairing systems, with parallels between Nigel's overactive immune system leading to his increasingly fragile health, and the machine culture's response to living systems. Other examples include the theme of how difficult it is to communicate: between species, between generations, between individuals with different motivations and backgrounds; the theme (or maybe just sound scientific observation) of how it's always more clever to use leverage than brute force to effect a large change, regardless of whether you're trying to wipe out a planet, or steer a group conversation towards your point of view; and parallels between the long voyages, land-based conflicts with hostile forces, and existential difficulties faced experienced by the solitary castaways on both Earth's ocean and the interstellar "sea of suns".
Not too many of the characters in this book are likable, including the introspective, grumpy old man protagonist, and it's a fairly slow-paced story, focusing more on shipboard politics and interstellar voyages than on the sporadic action scenes. But it kept my interest, nonetheless. There many interesting speculations about different forms of life, from organic to mechanical and a few hybrid stages in between, and the science is very sound (as always for a [a:Gregory Benford|22645|Gregory Benford|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1224059011p2/22645.jpg] novel).
Part of what kept me intrigued and entertained was the clear literary aspirations of the novel, with an experimental prose style and multiple themes and levels of metaphor. These make it stand out from a more run-of-the-mill space adventure.
Ship or suit radio communications comprise a significant portion of the book; these are written in a very fragmented and informal style, with little punctuation or indication of who is speaking, but plenty of jargon, slang, regional accents and verbal filler like umm, yeah, right. Apparently sometime in the next century, astronauts lose their formal "This is Houston. Over." radio habits and revert to talking over each other on a party line. This takes some effort to read, but is great at setting a mood, and illustrating the loss of information over radio compared to one-on-one dialogue with visual contact.
There are a number of themes and parallels running through the book. I suspect these may strike some as heavy-handed, since subtle metaphors typically sail right over my head. But for the most part they are left for the reader to discover, rather than being explicitly pointed out, and they definitely contributed to my enjoyment of the book. The most thought-provoking example for me was the theme of overzealous response of self-repairing systems, with parallels between Nigel's overactive immune system leading to his increasingly fragile health, and the machine culture's response to living systems. Other examples include the theme of how difficult it is to communicate: between species, between generations, between individuals with different motivations and backgrounds; the theme (or maybe just sound scientific observation) of how it's always more clever to use leverage than brute force to effect a large change, regardless of whether you're trying to wipe out a planet, or steer a group conversation towards your point of view; and parallels between the long voyages, land-based conflicts with hostile forces, and existential difficulties faced experienced by the solitary castaways on both Earth's ocean and the interstellar "sea of suns".
tdeshler's review against another edition
3.0
The trouble with a long book series like this is that each book seems to reveal only a part of the story. The identity and motivation of the various alien species remains deeply mysterious, which will become increasingly tedious unless resolved soon.
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